Chapter 327: One Last Act of Desperation

Emperor Balsamo Corsini was sitting upon his imperial throne within the City of Florence, news of Milan's fall had just reached his ears, and he could hardly believe it. If it were not coming from a trusted source, the man would never dare to believe such shocking words.

The Holy Roman Emperor swallowed the saliva built up in his throat before asking the question on his mind to the General standing before him.

"Can you repeat what you just said for me?"

Upon being asked this question, the General did not hesitate to respond with the words he had just spoken moments before. He sighed with defeat as he announced the grim news that he had only recently received.

"Milan has fallen; it took the Austrian Army roughly an hour to penetrate the city's defenses. Afterward, resistance to the Austrian invaders ended as swiftly as it had begun. According to reports, the Austrians have been ransacking the wealth of our Northernmost cities. Anything of value that can be taken has been stripped from the local populace, leaving the population poor and destitute."

With this clarification, the Emperor rested his head in his hands as he gazed at the floor with a panicked expression; he could seldom believe Milan had fallen so quickly, especially after he dispatched forces to hamper the Austrian advance. As such, he promptly asked about the status of his skirmishers.

"What about the troops we have set in the field? How many of them remain to slow down the Austrian Army?"

The General who had given the Emperor his report cleared his throat before speaking up about the status of their skirmishers.

"We have lost contact with the forces who were supposed to halt the Austrian advance; my guess is the Austrians found a way to hunt them down. The last message we received from any of our units in the field is a bit cryptic..."

The Emperor frowned as he heard this; in fact, he was quite afraid to ask, but he knew it was his duty to do so as such Balsamo masked his internal trepidation with a facade of confidence as he asked the General for his report.

"What were the contents of the message?"

The General once more did not hesitate to present the evidence; as such, he looked at the message written down with what appeared to be the blood of the man who had written it before speaking up.

"There are only two words... Austrian Ghosts"

Balsamo was a deeply religious and superstitious man. As such, his prior confident facade came crumbling down as soon as he heard the phrase. The Emperor immediately stood up from his seat with an expression filled with dread before breaking out into a mad outburst.

"What sorcery is this? Berengar can control the souls of the damned! Is that what my soldiers mean to tell me! How can we defeat such evil!?!"

While the Emperor was having a mental breakdown, the General cleared his throat and tried to present a reasonable alternative to his liege as such, he responded with a firm resolve.

"I don't believe the soldiers meant literal ghosts; I think what the report means is that Austria has hidden units that move in the shadows and swiftly attack our forces while remaining unseen. These alleged ghosts are a serious threat and need to be treated as such."

Upon hearing a reasonable explanation, the Emperor collapsed in his seat as he sighed heavily in relief; it took him a moment or two to calm his nerves, after all the manner that the Austrians had managed to advance through his territory was already border lining the supernatural.

The Emperor spent the next two moments reflecting on his options. The more he thought about it, the more he realized the possibility of victory in this war was practically non-existent. His Navy was utterly decimated and lied at the bottom of the Mediterranean.

His trade fleet was being pillaged by a combination of Berengar's privateers and foreign pirates with impunity, and as such, the economy had suffered severely. Without a proper navy, his trade would come grinding to a halt soon enough.

As for the Swiss front, it was a lost cause; half of the Nation had already fallen after the defeat at Zurich. The Swiss leaders were now convening to negotiate their surrender to Adelbrand and his Army of 25,000 Austrians.

Balsamo swore that if he were capable, he would march his armies into the Swiss Confederation and remind them who they were subject to. However, he could not do this, he had suffered serious losses against Berengar's Army, and the Austrians had cut off any route into the Swiss Confederation.

While all of this was happening, Berengar's main force was plowing straight through Lombardy and would soon enough be at his gates. Though the Emperor's forces had captured some weapons from Berengar's Army, it would be years before they could adequately reverse engineer such advanced weaponry; without a doubt, the war would be over long before then.

Thus the Holy Roman Emperor was left with two options, surrender and expect leniency, or fight in a last stand against the Austrian Army. The Emperor was too proud to bow his head to some lowly Baron who proclaimed himself King. No, there was only one way for this conflict to end; he would rather die than admit defeat to an upstart like Berengar.

Emperor Balsamo Corsini quickly rose from his seat and dusted off his attire before reclaiming his determination. After doing so, he boldly declared to his General his final plan for turning this war around.

"General, gather every man and child that can bear arms within our remaining territory. Equip them with whatever weapons you can find, and bring them to Florence! If Berengar wants to defeat me, he will have to take the city from an army of over a hundred thousand men!"

The General sighed when he heard this; bringing such a large army to Florence would deplete their food reserves; even if the Royal Austrian Army were to be defeated at Florence, the capital would starve by the time winter arrived.

The war was already lost, and yet the Emperor was too proud to admit defeat. Nevertheless, the General had his orders and nodded his head before responding in the affirmative.

"I will do what you ask, but your Majesty, as your General, I feel I must advise you against such a drastic measure. Regardless of whether we win or lose this battle, this war as a whole will be the end of the Holy Roman Empire!

Even if we manage to repel the Austrians, our armies will be devastated, and our economy will be in ruin. If we genuinely undergo such a disastrous option, we will no longer have the ability to project enough strength to control our vassals, and one by one, they will follow in the path of Austria..."

However, despite this advice, the Emperor was undeterred from his course of action; either Austria would break its back against the walls of Florence, or the Empire would crumble, however, the dignity of the Emperor would never falter, as such Balsamo Corsini glared at his General before responding.

"Your opinion is noted, but you will do what I ask, or I will find a General who will..."

After hearing that the Emperor was set on this suicidal path, the General sighed heavily before nodding his head. The future was bleak for the Empire, but he supposed all good things must come to an end. After all, the vassals that made up the Holy Roman Empire were largely autonomous, to begin with. With this in mind, the General steeled his resolve before responding to the Emperor's demands.

"Very well, you shall have your army, but when the Empire begins to fall apart, let it be known that I advised against this course of action."

The Emperor said nothing and allowed the General to depart in silence. Instead, he sat down upon his throne once more and took a large swig from his chalice filled with wine. The man continued to drink until the contents within the glass were entirely within the confines of his stomach.

The Emperor had faith that Berengar would not so quickly seize the Capital of the Empire with such a large force of defenders. Even if most of them were nothing more than peasant levies, bodies were bodies, and Berengar's power could be overwhelmed eventually.

As such, while Berengar rapidly began to advance upon the city of Parma, the Empire had started withdrawing all of its forces within the field and the garrisons which guarded the northern towns to Florence. As for Southern Italy, they too were tasked with bringing forth troops to defend Florence from the Austrian invasion.

The Battle of Florence would become the determining battle in this war for Austrian Independence; whether or not the Empire would crumble in defeat was mere speculation at this point. After all, the union of the various Imperial States was still beneficial to most of its members. One thing was sure, though, this battle would have long-reaching effects on the power structure of the European continent.